Sunday, June 24, 2012

How to get a PPS number

One of the main issues of living (or at least working) in Ireland, is attaining a PPS number. Number is a personal number for Tax office to calculate person's taxes. Number is also needed if a person wants to get a pension later on as well as all the other social security and health related issues.

Attaining the PPS number is basically really simple process with right documents. You need to have a valid identification like a passport or a driver's license (of course, this seems to be mandatory in every developed country) and a proof of address. The latter one is a bit trickier process. What substitutes for a proof of address is a matter of opinion, but a rental agreement, a letter from a landlord or a room mate, a some kind of utility bill (electricity, gas, garbage disposal) or a letter from your employer is kind of proof, and so valid, but these letters are put into consideration. You also need some easy to use leisure products like portable videogames, mp3 device, a book, a paper or your yoga mat. I'll come back to that later.

So your morning starts 9:25 at Kings inn street social welfare office. There are loads of people with lots of concerns awaiting with you and when the door opens at 9:30 they will all run upstairs for reasons unknown to man. Theory of Collective Intelligence might give us a hint of this behaviour. But your main concern is to avoid letting your instincts to push in and to stay downstairs. There's a perfectly normal desk calling for you on the first level and when this happens, you can let your instincts finally go loose. Use your muscles to achieve the desk and you will encounter two well behaving customer representatives ready to give you a ticket number as soon as you tell them that you're here for the PPS number and you have your ID and forementioned proof of address readily at your hand.

Now comes the hard part of using leisure products. Time usually seems to be in bullet time (see references from Matrix or any other action movie made in the next five years after the original matrix) when you're waiting. Hopefully you understand how to use your leisure products or that you at least have that special happy place located somewhere in your brain, where you can go anytime when a moment calls for it.

After almost using all of your leisure products, your number is up and you will have to locate yourself in a appropriate small booth. Process from there on is supported by two lovely officials which will give you two small papers to be filled out. If you get into any sort of trouble because of lack of understanding, the officials will help you anyway they can, or if the situation asks for it, you will be appointed to guardian, who will take care of you until you are suit to satisfy your basic needs on your own.

The first letter is about your personal details, like your name and a place of birth, mother's maiden name, etc. As stated before, if you can't fill out these for any various reason, there really should be somebody to take care of you. You might label me as a supporter of sustainable equality, for I think that is a good thing. The second letter is all about security questions which will be used if you need to be in contact later on about your PPS number.

After you are done, you will receive a letter delivered to your home address stating your PPS number in five days. You can also call the Head Office of PPS numbers the following day. Here you will need to recall your security questions, because that is the way you are identified from now on - ALL THE TIME.